Everyone struggles to stay healthy. Most people think that kids don't struggle with this because they have so much energy, but they do. Obesity rates for kids are nearly 20%! Most obesity is blamed on junk food, fast food, and little or no exercise. How to stay healthy as a teenager is a hard question, but these three things should help you understand.

1. You gain weight when you don't exercise.

2. You hurt your body when you eat junk food, and fast food

3. Both combined will decrease how long you live

Your body needs calories, or food to live. But when you do not burn off some of the calories you will gain weight. For example, if you eat 2500 calories a day and only burn 550 calories from sleeping, you will be gaining weight. If you eat 2500 calories, and burn off 1550 calories then you will lose weight. For people over 150lbs you will burn around 500-600 calories every night while you sleep. But that is not enough to lose weight on a 2500 calorie diet.

If you burn around 1000 calories a day from things other than sleeping you will most likely lose weight, or stay fairly neutral. You should set goals to eat less, and work out more. If you change your diet to 1500 calories a day and you still burn 1550 you will certainly lose weight, and make yourself healthier.

Every time you put junk food in your body you are hurting yourself. Junk foods, like candy, cookies, and other sweets have oils in them. One oil in particular, palm oil raises your cholesterol a bunch. Cholesterol is good, and natural for your body to have, but your cholesterol level can go up and that can clog the arteries. If you have high cholesterol then you are at risk for a heart attack, or stroke.

To prevent getting a high cholesterol stay away from tropical oils, such as palm, and coconut oils. Fast food does another thing to your body; it doesn't provide your body with the vitamins, and minerals it needs. Also, most fast foods have high levels of saturated fat, and calories, which hurt your body over a long period of time. In addition, not getting the right minerals and vitamins can change your emotions. Lastly, eating fast food raises your chance of getting diabetes.

If you put these to together you see that not working out, and eating bad foods really do kill your body. To keep a healthy life you should eat right, and exercise daily. Stay away from McDonalds, and Burger King, and eat something healthy. Run around your neighborhood once a day.

Find things to do to keep you active, and healthy. You only have one life, so you mine as well make the best of it, eating right, and burning calories, is the way to do it.